School Year Curriculum - Youth

Hey parents (and students)!

Just want to keep you in the loop about my curriculum plans for the upcoming school year :)

I asked students to give feedback about this past year and let me know what sort of stuff they want to be learning in the next school year. I received a LOT of feedback, which is awesome and also sort of overwhelming!

Lots of the topics that they requested we actually covered this year and last year in Sunday School (e.g. Revelation, Bible overview, etc.) but many students don't attend. Here is my official plug for parents - bring your kids to Sunday School! We cover more in-depth topics than we can on Friday nights, and there are also adult classes at the same time. We even have food! And there is coffee for adults! COME!

My list of topics was rather daunting with about 30 items on the list. There is NO WAY we can cover everything in a year, or even two or three. So if you or your teen requested something that we don't teach this year, my apologies. Students are always welcome to ask their youth leaders, me, or even Pastor Stef about topics they want to learn more about.

So moving on to what we are covering this year...

Sunday Mornings: My current plan is to purchase a year-long curriculum that takes students through character studies from both the Old and New Testament. Some of the people we will study are very familiar to students while some are more obscure. I chose this curriculum because students requested topics such as Bible overview, Old and New Testament studies, Bible heroes, character studies, prophets, disciples, women in ministry, etc. This curriculum will also relate to students' lives, bringing in their requests for lessons about living as a Christian, love, patience, peer pressure, sin, sex, etc. as they relate to these ancient people.

Bible Studies: Our Bible studies are not planned out at the moment, but I'm hoping for 2-3 groups to be meeting weekly in homes. Sheldon and I are thrilled to be able to host one at our place once we are married. Our study will start as soon as we are back from our honeymoon in early October, likely on a Monday night as it has worked well in the past. I'm praying that we can find godly leaders in other locations on different nights, making it possible for more students to attend. If any of you have leads on making this possible, I'm all ears! I will be asking all groups to choose a book of the Bible to study together. They may not have a formal curriculum plan, but it's important to get in the Word and READ! I'm planning to start our group with a study of one of the Gospels, probably followed by Pauline Letters or Psalms. Studying books of the Bible hits the students' requests for topics like how to study the Bible, why we know it's true, parables, miracles, characters, the life of Jesus, why we trust Him, etc. And of course, it'll relate to the life-applicable topics too!

Friday Nights: Fridays are our "lightest" teaching time as sermons and small group discussion need to relate both to our Christian regulars and unchurched newcomers. I'm planning to spend the year speaking on requested topics such as why we know the Bible is true, why we need Jesus, God's character, life application topics, evangelism, media, community, etc. There is no official series for these sermons - I tend to preach what I am reading and take into account what students ask for.

I'm hoping that this year's curriculum will satisfy our students and their very diverse requests! We could do full series on every topic they requested but unfortunately that isn't possible in a year, so I'm praying this plan hits most of the main topics they asked for. And of course, if you (parents) would like resources to talk to your kids about this stuff, just ask for it and I can find you something awesome. And students, same goes for you! There are lots of great books out there :)

Finally.... COME TO SUNDAY SCHOOL! hehe